Product Description

It's 1962 and all across America barriers are collapsing. But when Natalie Marx's mother inquires about summer accommodations in Vermont, she gets the following reply: The Inn at Lake Devine is a family-owned resort, which has been in continuous operation since 1922. Our guests who feel most comfortable here, and return year after year, are Gentiles. For twelve-year-old Natalie, who has a stubborn sense of justice, the words are not a rebuff but an infuriating, irresistible challenge.

In this beguiling novel, Elinor Lipman charts her heroine's fixation with a small bastion of genteel anti-Semitism, a fixation that will have wildly unexpected consequences on her romantic life. As Natalie tries to enter the world that has excluded her--and succeeds through the sheerest of accidents--The Inn at Lake Devine becomes a delightful and provocative romantic comedy full of sparkling social mischief.  

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #328268 in Books
• Published on: 1999-04-27
• Released on: 1999-04-27
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 272 pages

Amazon.com
In the early 1960s, a Massachusetts family suffers a polite awakening. Inquiring about summer openings at a Vermont inn, the Marxes receive a killingly civil response, which ends, "Our guests who feel most comfortable here, and return year after year, are Gentiles." Apparently the Marxes are not quite as ideally average as they thought, at least on the basis of their surname. So begins The Inn at Lake Devine, Elinor Lipman's disarming and very funny exploration of the power of pride and place. Natalie, the youngest Marx daughter, will literally spend years responding to this rebuff. At first she taunts the innkeeper, Ingrid Berry, by phone and mail, stressing by exaggeration that a system which welcomes WASP wife-murderers but not famed convert Elizabeth Taylor is both unfair and inane. In 1964, our Anne Frank adept even goes so far as to send off a copy of the newly minted Civil Rights Act: "Who knew if I'd ever exchange another letter with a documented anti-Semite?" she asks. "Just in case no one ever insulted me again--in this land of religious freedom and ironclad civil rights--I employed the big gun I was saving for future transgressors: 'P.S.,' I typed and underlined: 'In spite of everything I still believe that people are really good at heart.'"

The next summer Natalie manages to engineer an invite to Lake Devine, coming in on the coattails of Robin Fife, a good-natured, none-too-swift fellow camper whose family are regulars: "We all wanted to cross the threshold as guests and not visitors, and maybe I, in my early-teen disguise, was best suited to be a spy in the house of Devine. It was our duty to show that we--with the blood of Moses, Queen Esther, Leonard Bernstein, and Sid Caesar coursing through our veins--were the equal of any clientele." But by the end of her stay, Natalie is fed up with the Fifes' relentless good will and Mrs. Berry's covert ill will. All in all, she is relieved to return to firm social ground, and doesn't devote much thought to her "Gentile ambitions" for the next 10 years. A letter about a Camp Minnehaha reunion, however, brings Robin back into the picture, and Natalie is again invited to Lake Devine--this time for her campmate's marriage to the eldest Berry son.

But enough plot summary. The Inn at Lake Devine is full of sweet and sharp surprises that would be churlish to reveal. Lipman offers up sparkling scenes of serious social mischief, explorations of identity, delicious food (though a deadly mushroom lasagna momentarily clouds the picture), and a wedding party or two. All this and a pair of the menschiest WASP brothers in literary history--not to mention phrases such as shnook, shmendrick, and shmegege--make The Inn at Lake Devine the perfect, provocative comedy.

From Library Journal
A story of Jews and Gentiles, this very funny novel begins with a segregated inn in Vermont and ends with all the characters getting their comeuppance. In its skewering of assimilation and cultural diversity, it is reminiscent of Gish Jen's Mona in the Promised Land (LJ 3/15/96), only here Lipman uses Christians, not Chinese, to tweak social consciousness. Natalie Marx is shocked when, in response to an inquiry, her mother receives a note from the proprietor of the Inn at Lake Devine baldly stating that the guests who feel most comfortable there are Gentiles. Natalie inveigles an invitation from a friend to go to the inn and thereby sets off a lifelong fascination with breaking the rules. Both entertaining and thought-provoking, this delightful new work is highly recommended for all fiction collections.?Molly Abramowitz, Silver Spring, Md.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

The New York Times Book Review, Lore Dickstein
Her touch is light and breezy, more benign stand-up comedy than meanspirited satire.

Customer Reviews

One Of My Favorites, By One Of My Favorite Writers
Having grown up outside of Boston, then living in western MA for a few years after college, I started reading Ms. Lipman's books for the settings, and fell in love with her stories. This is one of her best, IMHO.

Great book for leisure read
I borrowed this book from my mother in law because my sister in law said she could not put the book down. I started reading it and I also couldn't put it down. It is truly a leisure read. I would recommend to take this to airport, on the plane, or sit on a lawn chair and enjoy this book. I am going to start reading more books from this author.

You don't have to be Jewish
I really don't care for specialty-group books: mother-daughters, sisterhoods, working moms, etc.; I had this figured to be a good library check-out book, as in, don't spend any money on it, because you probably end up having to be East-coast Jewish to really get a good read out of it. Wrong. The positives already expressed still apply. Lipman is a skilled author who develops character and situational drama so skillfully that all other "specialty" elements (religion, cooking, etc.) take a back seat to the entirely fun and riveting read.
So, if you are a west coast protestant who really doesn't enjoy cooking or resort life, read this book for the sheer light, can't-put-down, literary pleasure!